It seems like a mandatory thing – own an iPhone, download a ton of apps (mostly free) and write about them on your blog. My turn.
My Top Ten (this one goes to Eleven!)
Evernote (free) – truly one of the best apps, Evernote is an extremely usable note-taking tool which combines text, photos, and voice notes with a synchonized iPhone client, web client, and desktop client. I’ve personally used this in place of OneNote to effectively take notes at a three day conference where I simply didn’t want to drag my laptop around. Worked beautifully. I’m not as familiar with Evernote as I am with Microsoft’s OneNote (my favorite Office application) but it is a strong contender due to the super-useful iPhone client. I’m sure this will eventually warrant it’s own blog post. I use it and love it.
mBoxMail ($9.99) – thanks to my complete reliance on e-mail and my possibly insane desire to keep my work and personal mail accounts as separate as possible, I was forced to turn to a distinct mobile app for my personal e-mail. I use HotMail as the mail server for DevCow. Until recently, HotMail didn’t offer Pop3 access in the US and the mobile web UI is less than appealing. Along comes mBoxMail (specifically version 2.0 which I am testing in beta) which offers a slew of features I love, including features which are missing from the current default iPhone mail client. I’ve actually written about mBoxMail already. I use it and love it.
CameraBag ($2.99) – the iPhone is just so appealing to grab and play with that the camera on it is seeing a lot more action than any of my previous cameraphones. Unfortunately, Apple didn’t put a good camera here so I’ve picked up CameraBag to improve my photos with a variety of filters and effects that really make a difference. The filters offered here do a variety of neat little edits such as black and white, sepia tones, super-saturation of color and more. Best of all, the effects can be easily layered. This is about as complex as I’d like to manage when editing photos on the iPhone and it works beautifully. I use it and love it.
Tweetie ($2.99) – I really enjoy social networking. I use it a lot, talk about it a lot, and have even co-authored a book about it, Social Computing with Microsoft SharePoint 2007. In my social networking life, Facebook and Twitter feature prominently. On my iPhone, I’ve tried out several different Twitter applications and in my mind the undefeated champion is Tweetie. Tweetie offers a great deal of features including the ability to save individual tweets and searches. These last two are favorite features of mine.
Stanza (free) – By far, this is the app I use the most on my iPhone. I’ve got a small library of e-books which I’ve been carrying around for years. This little tool can consume a wide array of formats and offers access to a number of built-in book stores, including a huge amount of free content and the Fictionwise premium store. I’ve never really used a Kindle or the Kindle iPhone app, but I can’t envision myself switching to that given the free content available and the online Google book search stuff recently released.
Facebook (free) – I freely admit that I like Facebook. I even like the new UI with the live feed on the home page. This app makes it easy to keep up on the go with a view into your feed, notifications, and inbox. You can even use this to send photos from your iPhone directly into Facebook (which has dramatically increased the number of photos I upload) as well as to chat with online friends with Facebook Chat. I actually use this mobile application more than I do the website these days.
LiveStrong ($2.99) – This calorie tracker integrates bi-directionally with the Daily Plate feature of LiveStrong.com. I’ve been using this website for nearly a year now and it’s helped me lose (and keep off) nearly 30 lbs since June of 2008. The UI is simple and the food database is enormous (and frequently full of duplicate items). This fits my needs as I’m not looking to count points or strictly regulate anything – I just need a way to keep an eye on what goes into my body so I know when I’m in danger of overdoing it. I managed to scoop this app up while it was still free a while ago.
WootWatch (free) – I love Woot.com. Take a product and discount it, write funny stuff about it, and sell the heck out of it! Great idea! Woot seems to have become a wildly successful little website, so much so that now there is a shirt.woot and a wine.woot. This fantastic little application lets me check in on each one of the woot sites every day and should I so desire, purchase the product right from the app. This is one of the most intuitive and easy to use apps on the phone and I regret that there will not be future updates because the application’s developer was hired into Apple.
Crayon Physics Deluxe ($4.99) – The first game I purchased for the iPhone and still the one I turn to over and over. The game is based on a simple concept – get the little ball to the little star. The trick is that you can draw crayon lines with your fingers and these lines have strength and weight which are affected by physics and gravity. Draw lines, ropes, pulleys, catapults, etc. Get the free desktop demo of this award winning independent game at www.crayonphysicsdeluxe.com. No, really. Go get it. Show it to your kids. Watch the videos on the blog about some of the clever Rube Goldberg solutions.
Lux Touch (free) – Risk for your iPhone. Lots of fun for a free game. I keep coming back to this one when I’ve got time to kill. This is the free version of an $8 game which looks good, but not worth $8 to me (yet).
Wolfenstein 3D Classic ($4.99) – How could I resist this one? The grandfather of first person shooters fully reproduced on the iPhone by the original designer, and completely open source. The game was fun back in the day and the iPhone version has this really amazingly clever touch control that makes it a blast to play. Hunt down some *** today!
Other apps I use (or at least have downloaded and not deleted yet)
Easy Wi-Fi (free) – I’ve not actually used this yet, but the claim is that this tool will streamline the connection to AT&T WiFi (which comes free with the iPhone) whenever you happen to walk into a place that offers AT&T WiFi (Starbucks?). Having attempted to manage the irritating connection details for AT&T wifi when wandering through the airport and such, I have to say that I’m really hopeful that this application lives up to its claims and I never have to deal with that junk again.
Wi-Fi Finder (free) – WiFi is faster and easier on the battery than 3G, so why not use a tool like this free Wi-Fi Finder to locate the nearest publically available and advertised Wi-Fi. Eat lunch there. Browse the web faster and for free on your iPhone at the same time. Good stuff. I’ve used this app once. It turns out that for me, I’m never really just wandering around in parts unknown looking for a wi-fi connection. I always have a destination in mind.
Microsoft Tag Reader (free) – I have no idea if this concept will take off or not, as I’ve only seen a single Microsoft product with a colorful Microsoft Tag on it (and that was a copy of the Halo Wars Xbox 360 game) but if it does take off I’ve got an app which can read them and react accordingly. For those who are unaware, this is similar to a barcode – except it’s a code readible by the terrible cellphone cameras. If we all had high resolution lenses capable of capturing a barcode, I’m sure we’d just be snapping photos of those. Since we don’t, the fine folks at Microsoft Research have come up with this clever information sharing tool. I’ve used this app once, inside the Microsoft store.
Cooliris (free) – search for pictures from a variety of locations like Google and Flickr. If you find one you like, Cooliris lets you set that as your iPhone wallpaper. The UI is pretty neat but there is a ton of data flowing through for this app so be prepared to be a bit patient when on a 3G connection. I use it and love it, although the speed at which it resolves some of the images does occasionally leave something to be desired.
SnapTell (free) – The promise of this app is great – find the book, DVD, CD, or video game you’re looking at in a store more cheaply online. It’s got great reviews in the iTunes AppStore but I’ve never actually used this. I think the reason is that I very rarely buy books, DVDs, CDs, or video games and when I do it’s always online. Come to think of it, that very logic might cause me to uninstall this app and clear out some space
Shovel (free) – Digg news aggregator. Works pretty well, but I’m not a huge fan of Digg so I don’t use this app very frequently. I have another news aggregator I prefer – Mobile News. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with this app, its just that I tend to think that most of the stories which get to the top of Digg are terrible and in general, a waste of time. But that’s just me. I also don’t like that you have to click the story twice to get to the story, the first click takes you to people talking about the story, but that emulates Digg itself.
TED (free) – Unfortunately I have been unable to devote the time I’d like to this app and the associated website. Basically this presents a very compelling UI for access to the video and audio content of the TED convention. The TED convention is a gathering of the best and brightest in the world discussing solutions to real significant problems. The problem is that I’ve never been able to sit around and watch stuff on my mobile devices. Maybe someday, perhaps in an airport.
NPR Mobile (free) – Do you listen to NPR? Do you like the stories and perhaps want to be able to listen to them at your convenience? Would an easy to navigate set of categories help you find what you’re looking for? If you answered yes to these questions, this app is for you! Some content is audio only, some is text and audio, and all of it is pretty darn good. I still tend to use the AP Mobile News app more frequently, but I do like this one b/c I can find the programs I like and see what I’ve missed.
Pandora (free) – Personalized radio on your iPhone. Brilliantly easy and familiar to anyone who uses the desktop version. I’ve never really been a user of this app on the iPhone or desktop b/c I have my Zune with me, but if I need it, I’ve got it.
Shazam (free) – This app is pretty remarkable. It’s able to listen to a song (radio, TV, restaurant background music, whatever) and identify it. It can get a bit screwed up by loud ambient noise, but when the area around you is quiet enough, Shazam is dead-on accurate. Very cool. Once you’ve identified a song, the app will bookmark it for you with a tag which you can refer to later or use to find the song in iTunes for purchase. This is slightly cooler than the Zune FM purchase capability b/c this app recognizes songs from anywhere, not just songs which are coming from a radio station broadcasting RDS.
BargainBin (free) – This app scans through the iTunes AppStore to find the apps which are free or have been marked down. I’ve been able to download at least one application for free which otherwise would have cost me about $3 so it’s been a worthwhile addition, although in general it’s of dubious value in that it mostly reveals applications I don’t care about.
More apps
Other apps I’ve installed and just ran out of patience trying to write a paragraph description for. I’ve included links at least!
Join SharePoint architects, developers, and other professionals that work with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 for ‘SharePoint Saturday’, on Saturday, April 18th, 2009 at the Microsoft Office on Sanctuary Pkwy in Alpharetta, GA. SharePoint Saturday will be an educational, informative & lively day filled with sessions from respected SharePoint professionals & MVPs, covering a wide variety of SharePoint-orientated topics. SharePoint Saturday is FREE, open to the public and is your local chance to immerse yourself in SharePoint!
Michael Lotter and Dan Attis are happy to announce that registration is now open. If Atlanta follows the trend as other SharePoint Saturday events registration will fill up quickly. So don't delay and register today.
http://www.clicktoattend.com/?id=136991
Lot’s of great talent from Atlanta will be speaking Brendon Schwartz, Doug Ware, Matt Ranlett as well as many more! Some great out of town guests too Joel Oleson and John Holiday
Join SharePoint architects, developers, and other professionals that work with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 for SharePoint Saturday, on Saturday, April 18th, 2009 at the Microsoft Office on Sanctuary Pkwy in Alpharetta, GA. SharePoint Saturday will be an educational, informative & lively day filled with sessions from respected SharePoint professionals & MVPs, covering a wide variety of SharePoint-orientated topics. SharePoint Saturday is FREE, open to the public and is your local chance to immerse yourself in SharePoint!
Registration is now open !!!!
We are happy to announce that registration is now open. If Atlanta follows the trend as other SharePoint Saturday events registration will fill up quickly. So don't delay and register today.
I’ve been a HotMail user for a number of years as the e-mail provider for DevCow.com. While I’ve always liked HotMail with the desktop Live Mail client and the web client, the mobile device access has always left me wanting. For a number of years now, HotMail has not provided POP3 or IMAP access (although it is now available in the US) which means the only way to interact is via the web access.
Recently I had some cellphone hardware issues which precipitated a new hardware purchase. I picked up an iPhone for reasons which will be detailed in a different blog post and have become a raving fan of the iPhone. In fact, my relationship with it borders on unhealthy and my wife insists I stop bringing it to bed with me. ;-)
HotMail on the iPhone
I use my iPhone mail application for my corporate e-mail and even if it’s possible, I don’t want to deal with managing multiple accounts inside of that mail application. I prefer to keep the two mail accounts completely separated. While the iPhone has a brilliant web browsing experience, I’m not happy with the default web access experience. Even in landscape mode, it’s just not an enjoyable UI.
Hunting around the Apple App Store brought me to the mBoxMail application which promised to bring my HotMail to my iPhone. I snapped up the application – version 1.2.2 and found that while it did function as advertised, I felt that there were some problems which I couldn’t ignore. I contacted the support department for mBoxMail to register a defect or two and was brought into the mBoxMail version 2.0 beta program. I have to say that I’m extremely impressed with the mail application – it’s superior to the built in iPhone mail application!
Please note that I have received permission to post these images of the pre-release beta version of mBoxMail version 2.0.
Here you can see how easy it is to navigate through my various mail folders and my e-mail items themselves. Items I really like include:
- Snappy and responsive user interface. This is a major step up from version 1.2 of mBoxMail and makes this application as user friendly as the built in e-mail application.
- Integration of my HotMail and Live IM contacts along with my iPhone contacts under the contacts button. Easy to use and respects the contact groups I’ve configured in Live and IM.
- The ability to search for e-mail! This feature is completely missing from the regular iPhone application and is a tremendous addition.
- The ability to add multiple attachments to an e-mail message. The mBoxMail UI for new and reply e-mail messages lets me add an unlimited (or at least I’ve not reached the limit) number of photos to an e-mail message AFTER I’ve started typing the e-mail. The regular iPhone e-mail client doesn’t let you add any attachments after you start typing the e-mail. To mail a photo using the normal client you have to start out in the photo library and select the single photo you want to e-mail before you start typing.
- mBoxMail includes all of the gesture support you’re used to with the default e-mail client, such as swiping across an individual e-mail to delete it.
There are loads of things to like with this new version of the mBoxMail client and I can’t wait for the general release of the 2.0 version. I’ve been an active participant in the beta feedback program and have submitted about 14 suggestions for improvements to the team at this point and they seem to be very receptive and appreciative of my suggestions.